• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, October 10, 2014

In May, the European Union's Court of Justice ruled that individuals have the right to be “forgotten” by search engines.

The ruling paved the way for people to ask Google (and other search companies) to purge links to embarrassing news articles or other information they want hidden from view. Google doesn't have to automatically honor those requests; instead, the company is expected to weigh people's rights to privacy against the public interest in the information.

The court's ruling also doesn't require news organizations to also remove their archives, so the underlying articles often remain available online regardless of Google's decision.

Google said today in a new transparency report that it has received requests from almost 150,000 people, who have asked the company to take down almost 500,000 URLs. So far, Google has removed around 42% of those URLs, but left the remaining 58% in place.

The company also published 15 “anonymized” examples of how it responded to particular requests.

In one case, a doctor in the U.K. asked Google to take down more than 50 links to news pieces about a “botched procedure.” The company said that it removed three of those pages, which didn't mention information about the procedure, but left up the rest of the links.

Google also said that an individual in Italy wanted the company to remove a link to “a copy of an official state document published by a state authority reporting on the acts of fraud committed by the individual.” The company declined.

What types of links did Google take down? A woman in Italy successfully requested that Google remove a link to a page with her selfie. That link no longer appears in the search results for the woman's name, Google said.

And a U.K. man who  pleaded guilty to a crime wanted to remove a link to a news account of the verdict. The conviction was considered “spent” under a U.K. law aimed at giving defendants a fresh start. That law provides that after a period of time has passed since a conviction -- the length depends on the sentence -- defendants no longer have to disclose past convictions to employers, or when applying for insurance.  Google removed that page from search results for the man's name.

U.S. courts don't recognize a right to be forgotten -- though that hasn't stopped some people from trying to force companies to remove unflattering content. In general, those people are fighting losing battles in America, where the First Amendment protects the right to post truthful information.